Prep talk: Division 1 baseball quarterfinals have top matchups
There are four big-time matchups Friday in the quarterfinals of the Southern Section Division 1 baseball playoffs. The intrigue involves which teams can win with No. 2 pitchers.
Top-seeded Corona won with ace Seth Hernandez on Tuesday but now must get past Big VIII League rival Norco on the road with Ethin Bingaman pitching against freshman standout Jordan Ayala. This is the game the Panthers might be most vulnerable.
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St. John Bosco, the Trinity League champion, is playing at Villa Park in a noon matchup. Villa Park defeated Aquinas on Tuesday. Los Alamitos is playing at Santa Margarita in a matchup of teams that didn't win league titles.
Mira Costa, with a 26-game winning streak, faces Mission League champion Crespi on the road in a 2:15 start at Hartunian Field. The Celts have No. 2 pitcher Tyler Walton ready to go.
The winners advance to Tuesday's semifinals. …
The City Section Division III baseball championship will take place Friday at Stengel Field, with University playing Jefferson at 3 p.m. Then the Division II final has Port of Los Angeles playing Chavez at 6 p.m. …
Grant Leary of Crespi won the Southern Section individual golf title on Thursday, shooting a 66.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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USA Today
5 hours ago
- USA Today
Seth Hernandez wins Gatorade National Player of the Year, ready for MLB draft day
Seth Hernandez wins Gatorade National Player of the Year, ready for MLB draft day Show Caption Hide Caption Watch baseball player's emotional reaction to surprise MLB promotion During a minor league baseball game in Tacoma, Washington, Cole Young was pulled aside and informed he'd been called up to play in the big leagues. Seth Hernandez has not yet thrown a professional pitch. Yet he's already getting pretty good at slowing the game down. Hernandez will hear that phrase a lot over the next, say, decade or two, as he progresses from prep baseball phenomenon to first-round draft pick and, in just a few weeks, the projected future ace of a major league franchise. But things are already coming quickly. Thursday, Hernandez fulfilled a longtime goal when he was named the Gatorade National Player of the Year, joining a group that in the four decades of the honor has gone on to combine for four MVPs, 42 All-Star appearances and 27 first-round draft selections. Come July 13, Hernandez will join that group. With a 100-mph fastball and a mature three-pitch mix, Hernandez is by far the best prep pitcher in this draft and remains on the periphery of consideration for the No. 1 overall pick. With significant volatility among the projected top 10 – thanks to prep stars like Hernandez, his Corona High School teammate Billy Carlson and Oklahoma prep shortstops Ethan Holliday and Ei Willits along with a bevy of elite college arms – Hernandez could go anywhere in the first dozen names called. MLB DRAFT PROSPECTS: Players to watch in NCAA super regionals He's already going through the ringer of interviews and visits with clubs, as they probe his hobbies (golfing, though not particularly well) and off-field demeanor (chill, it seems). All while his decorated high school career came to a dramatic end and graduation looms. 'It's a game,' Hernandez told USA TODAY Sports after All-Star and World Series champion Dexter Fowler surprised him with the Gatorade honor, 'and you just got to be able to take in the special moments because not everybody's privileged to do this stuff. 'And really just taking it day by day. The draft is something super special and it's going be a surreal moment, but I know that it's just going to be the starting point and something new and a new chapter in my life. 'So it's going to be exciting.' It's already been an exciting couple years for Hernandez. His Corona Panthers put together an epic two-year run, beginning in 2024 when they won the National High School Invitational in Cary, North Carolina and capped a 30-3 season with a CIF-Southern Section Division I championship. Their 5-0 victory over Harvard-Westlake – the powerhouse that's produced Lucas Giolito, Max Fried, Jack Flaherty and Pete Crow-Armstrong – made them the first team in history to claim bot the NHSI and the crown at the highest level of California baseball. How does one top that? Well, Hernandez could be the first of three Panthers to come off the board in round one. Shortstop Carlson is also pegged to go in the first dozen or so picks, while infielder Brady Ebel should land in the first two rounds. The trio did all right this year, too, going 28-3 before falling in the Division I semifinals to St. John Bosco. And Hernandez certainly did his part. He gave up just one earned run all season before Bosco's 3-0 semifinal victory. Hernadnez finished with a 105-7 strikeout-walk ratio. 'It was awesome. They're going to be my brothers for life,' Hernandez said of his teammates. 'Obviously, we didn't take it home this year, but we did take it home last year. And the group that we had this year was super special. Once in a generation type of team. And it was great just because we gelled so well together and really just brothers – not only on the field, but off the field as well. 'With the team we had this year, it's kind of hard to look back and say it was a failure just because our team was so special. And like I said, it was once in a generation type of thing. No hard feelings.' Oh, and Hernandez slammed seven home runs and drove in 30, leaving a strong impression on Fowler, the 2016 Chicago Cubs World Series champ. 'I've watched his videos and he's got a nice swing on him. I didn't know!' says Fowler. 'Is this the next Shohei? What are we doing?' Quipped Hernandez: 'I'm not stealing 50 bags.' Nope, not when he's expected to receive a bonus in the high seven figures. Hernandez, who committed to Vanderbilt, first drew the strong attention of scouts as a high school sophomore, when he hit 96 mph on the radar gun at an Area Code Games event at Dodger Stadium. He has improved his pitchability as his frame filled out, and pushed his fastball to triple digits. Come mid-July, that progress will pay off, and soon after, Hernandez will be a professional. Things will change, as a game becomes a business. With that, Fowler had some words of advice to keep Hernandez grounded. 'My parents always asked me, 'When do you think you'll be done playing?'' says Fowler, who played his last game in 2021 and retired with 1,306 hits and a .358 on-base percentage over 14 seasons. 'I said, 'When I stop having fun.' When it becomes a job, I'm going to be done. 'So keep this same attitude, keep this same energy. It'll take take you where you need to go.'
Los Angeles Times
4 days ago
- Los Angeles Times
Prep Rally: St. John Bosco was the surprise of the baseball season
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. What a weekend it was for championships in baseball and softball. Going into the 2025 baseball season, St. John Bosco was hardly on anyone's mind as a potential Southern Section Division 1 champion. It was going to be the super team, Corona, or last season's runner-up Huntington Beach. But coach Andy Rojo built the most consistent team of all, going 27-4, eliminating Corona 2-0 in the semifinals, then enduring nine innings to defeat Santa Margarita 3-2 on a walk-off hit by Miles Clark in the Division 1 final. There were so many big moments by big-time players in the Division 1 final. Few were more impressive than St. John Bosco closer Jack Champlin, who saved the Braves' win over Corona and then threw four scoreless innings against Santa Margarita with key strikeouts in moments of pressure. 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Then he got a phone call from a friend: 'Hey dude, we're in a playoff.' He was 17 minutes away and needed to be back at the course in 10 minutes. 'We hauled it,' he said. Thankfully, there were no police cars in the vicinity as he was driven back to the course. The playoff had started when he arrived. Players were in the fairway. He had no time to change into his golf shoes, so he played in his Nike Air Force shoes. He got a par on the first hole, then a birdie to win the playoff and advance. Last weekend, he won another playoff to reach the state championships Tuesday at Poppy Hills in Pebble Beach. He's ready for anything. Brady McHenry of Buena won the SCGA Southern California regional championship with a playoff win to be the No. 1 qualifier for the state championships Tuesday at Poppy Hills in Pebble Beach. Charlie Woods, son of Tiger Woods, won his first juniors tournament. Here's the report. The Bradford family in Manhattan Beach loves volleyball and everyone is tall. 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Los Angeles Times
6 days ago
- Los Angeles Times
St. John Bosco wins Division 1 baseball championship on Miles Clark's walk-off single
To say that St. John Bosco and Santa Margarita engaged in a championship baseball game on Friday night that will be remembered for a lifetime would be an understatement. 'This game was special, something I'll remember for the rest of my life. You really had to fight for it,' said St. John Bosco left fielder Noah Everly. It was a Southern Section Division 1 final filled with drama. Teenagers came through with big play after big play until finally in the bottom of the ninth inning, with the bases loaded, Miles Clark hit a walk-off single up the middle to give St. John Bosco a 3-2 victory and its first baseball championship before a sold-out crowd of 3,010 at Cal State Fullerton. 'It hurts a lot,' Santa Margarita coach Chris Malec said. 'It was a great effort by both sides. There were so many amazing moments.' Let's start with Santa Margarita pitcher Brennan Bauer, who threw five scoreless innings of relief and somehow escaped twice with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh to keep the game going. First he had a 3-and-1 count to Everly and got a pop fly with one out. Then he had a 3-2 count with Moises Razo and got a fly out to the warning track. 'That's all Brennan,' Malec said. In 22 1/3 playoff innings, Brenann won four games and gave up one earned run. Then there was Everly coming through with a stunning catch on the run in left field in the top of the ninth inning to prevent a Santa Margarita extra base hit with a runner on first. 'That was an extraordinary catch,' Malec said. Said Clark: 'Oh my goodness, Noah came through.' So did Clark against relief pitcher Ethan Russell in the bottom of the ninth. Bauer had run out of innings, having reached his 10-inning max after throwing five innings against Crespi in the semifinals. Russell walked Razo on a 3-2 pitch to load the bases, setting the stage for Clark. 'We were locked in the whole game,' Clark said. 'We didn't lose our mental focus. I kept telling my guys we have to stay focused.' Razo had a two-run double in the first inning to give the Braves an early lead. Santa Margarita took advantage of an error and closed it to 2-1 in the second on Brody Schumaker's second hit. The Eagles tied tied it at 2-2 in the fifth with a squeeze bunt by Blake Ankrum, the third sacrifice of the game. After Gavin Cervantes started on the mound and freshman Brayden Krakowski pitched into the sixth inning, St. John Bosco turned to its closer, Jack Champlin, who was magnificent. In four scoreless innings, he allowed one hit with four strikeouts. At one point, a Santa Margarita batter appeared to challenge Champlin after the count went to 3-0. Champlin proceeded to strike him out, unleashing a fist pump. St. John Bosco ended up being the most consistent team in the Southland for the 2025 season. The Braves went 27-4 and became the first Trinity League champion to win a Division 1 title. All the other Trinity League teams that have won Division 1 never won the league title. And beating top-seeded Corona 2-0 on Tuesday was quite an accomplishment itself.
